In agriculture, augers are frequently used to move an agricultural material from a cart to another cart, silo, truck, or other storage facility. A typical auger for a grain cart includes an auger screw that is housed inside a tubular housing. An intake portion of the auger assembly can draw from a hopper (usually by gravity) attached to it to receive grain or other material from the hopper and the other end (i.e., the discharge end) has a chute or the like to guide the grain or other material into its destination.
As a grain cart with a fully extended auger can be somewhat unwieldy during transport, many grain carts employ folding augers that can open to an operating position and fold to a transport position. In general, a folding auger assembly includes a lower auger segment and an upper auger segment, in which the upper auger segment moves with respect to the lower auger segment between the operating position and the transport position. Accordingly, folding augers typically include a joint assembly disposed at a junction between the upper and lower auger segments and received in the tubular housing, whereby the joint assembly allows one end of the lower auger screw to releasably connect to one end of the upper auger screw when the auger assembly is in the unloading position. Furthermore, the joint assembly typically includes a drive member coupled to the lower auger screw and a driven member coupled to the upper auger screw, in which the drive member rotatably couples to the driven member to transmit torque from the lower auger screw to the upper auger screw.